Secrets in the Dark by KD Blakely Page B

note back to
me.
    “ Or else what?” Faith
asked, nervously.
    What would an irritating,
rude, short-tempered elf do to people who didn’t keep
out?
    Ronny smiled, dimples
showing at the corner of her mouth. “It is meant as a
joke.”
    “ Riiiight,” Faith said, rolling her eyes. “It’s a joke.
Excuse me.” She got up and stalked over to the soda machine,
refilling her cup with orange soda.
    Hopefully Doug won’t do
anything to startle her this time.
    And hopefully Ronny was no
better at recognizing sarcasm than she was at getting quotes right.
I said, “Um…the cabin was open when we got there. There was no sign
of Ghalynn, and he hadn’t been there for a long time. There was a
shriveled up half eaten apple on the table, and this
map.”
    I held up the map. “We
think he was looking at it before he left, and he might’ve gone to
that cave. You can see where he drew a line along the road between
it and his cabin. Is there something interesting about
it?”
    “ I have not heard anything
about this cave,” Ronny answered, looking disappointed. “It used to
be the lair of an old dragon, but no one has seen it for
years.”
    “ A dragon?” Doug was
suddenly very interested.
    “ There are few left. The
one that lived there must be dead by now.”
    I could see Doug wanted to
keep talking about a maybe-dead-dragon, but I was interested in the
very real map in my hand.
    Ronny said, “Most of these
symbols are Runic. But they are not in the correct order and I do
not know what they say.” She pointed to another group of symbols
inked near the cave opening. “This says ‘Sleeping Dragon Cave’, but
you can see where Ghalynn added ‘Cave of Prophecy’.”
    When her finger touched the
map there was a sudden bright turquoise spark, and Ronny let out a
startled gasp. “There is something hidden here by magick.” She made
a strange gesture with her hand and muttered a long string of words
I couldn’t understand.
    She leaned back in surprise
as new words started to appear at the top of the map.
    “ Invisible ink,” Doug
said. “Cool!”
    I was busy watching Ronny’s
face. Her eyes were wide and filled with horror. “It says, ‘Get to
cave. Critically important. Find what is hidden there, or all may
be lost.’ What does that mean? And why would Ghalynn write those
words and hide them on this map?”
    She pushed the map back to
me, then started speaking quickly. Her words kept running into each
other. “I cannot imagine where everyone is. Or why Ghalynn would
write this. Or visit a cave for several weeks. It makes no
sense.”
    She paused for a moment,
struggling to regain her composure. Her voice was much calmer when
she continued. “I do not understand what has happened, but there
does not appear to be any real danger. So I would like to know if
you would go to that cave to look for Ghalynn.” She gazed anxiously
into our faces, waiting for our decision.
    “ Well, I love caves,”
Olivia told her. “My family has gone to several. I’d love to
explore it.”
    Doug said, “Of
course I’ll continue.” He shot a look at Faith. “ I like going to Chimera.”
    Faith grimaced, and then
sighed. “We agreed, all for one and one for all.”
    I added, “Besides, I want
to visit the animals again. They were able to communicate with us.
That is the coolest part of Chimera so far.”
    I was confused when I saw
Ronny’s jaw drop. I didn’t know people really did that — I’d only
seen it in cartoons. Ronny kept staring at me, her mouth half open.
I felt like telling her she was going to swallow a fly.
    Before I could actually say
it, she shook her head and asked, “What do you mean, you could
communicate with them?”
    We took turns describing
what happened with the animals at the cabin. Ronny kept shaking her
head, repeating, “That is not possible.” When we’d finished, she
said, “I do not understand. Never have I heard anything like this.
They are acting like familiars, but you are not